How to achieve the perfect mow

Trust us, your lawn doesn’t like a buzz cut as much as you think. In fact, it would prefer a long, luscious do rather than being cut right back to the root. There are few other things your lawns like when it comes time to trim, so hear us out with a few pro lawn tips and tricks!

Keep The Lawns A Bit Longer When You Mow
We suggest mowing only the top third of your lawn. This allows the grass blades to grow deeper roots, allowing it to find more nutrients and water in the soil. Scalping your lawn means your grass focuses its energy on regrowing the blades rather than deepening the roots, cutting off its food source. You’ll end up having to fertilise the lawn yourself too, or you’ll end up with a lawn that will begin looking patchy and sick in no time at all.

Keep Your Mower Blades Sharp
You wouldn't shave with a dull blade, right? Your grass hates a dull blade too. We recommend sharpening your mower blades at the first sign of wear (or even better, give it a tune-up and blade sharpening once a year). A dull blade tears up grass, causing ragged, brown edges, and can even cause your grass to weaken over time. Weak grass opens it up to more disease, insect damage, and other stresses (like heat and drought). One more thing: remember to wash your mower after each use, to help prevent any blockages within the mower itself.

Pick the right time to mow
Your lawn loves a good mow in the early evening. Mowing the lawn in the hottest part of the day doesn’t make sense for anyone, especially not your lawn! Who wants to mow in peak summer heat, anyway? Mowing in the early evening usually means the morning dew has dried up (unless it’s raining), making for a more even mowing surface, less chance of clogging up your mower with wet clippings, less chance of blunting the mower blade, and less chance of leaving behind wet clippings, which dried out and leaves brown spots on the section.

Vary Your Mowing Pattern
Get out of the mundane mowing pattern and spice things up a bit! Each time you mow, try doing it in a different direction. If you always cut your lawn using the same pattern, your grass will start to lean in the direction you mow (and you may even end up with dips in the lawn).

Mulch As You Mow
When mowing, leave the clippings on the lawn. No, hear us out on this one. Grass clippings break down quickly and return beneficial nutrients to the soil. Just be sure to mow often enough that you're not removing too much at once so the clippings are small. Grass can go into shock! If you take too much off the top, it can feel a little exposed and leaves long clippings on the lawn, which actually smothers the growing grass. Nasty.

Don’t Be Afraid of a Double, Or Even Triple, Cut
Taken a break from the lawns for a few weeks? At the rate they’re growing, we aren’t surprised you’re wondering how best to tackle the length. While it may be tempting to cut it down to size in one swoop, it is not going to be happy with you. By taking off too much length at once, you are going to stress your lawn. And just like people, a stressed lawn will perform poorly. Aim to mow it to approximately 50% of its current height. Give it a few days to rest and recuperate before taking off another 50% of its new height. If it’s still too long, then you may need to go for a third cut. It might take a little bit more time than cutting it all back at once. But spending a few extra hours to go slow is a much better option than spending months trying to repair it.

Go Short At Winter
Just once a year you can go a little bit crazy. Winter’s a good time to give the grass one good buzz cut. Firstly, long grass won’t be blown over by winter winds and block sunlight and air reaching the roots. Air circulation is important when the weather is cool and damp as it prevents mold, moss and fungi from killing off your grass. Secondly, it makes it much easier to spot any patchy areas and give them a good seeding so that you have a thick and full lawn come spring.

Self-propelled perfection
Manually pushing a lawn mower is a great workout, and we’re sure you’ll know how sweaty you get building that perfect body as you mow. But when it comes to your backyard, a finely sculpted lawn is way more important than a finely sculpted body. Have you thought about a self-propelled mower?

The secret to a professional finish with a self-propelled lawn mower is consistency. The lawn mower moves at the same speed across the entire lawn. This leaves you with a smoother, more professional finish. All four walls stay firmly on the ground too, no matter the slope or dip in your section, so you can avoid balding or scalping and welcome a thick, lush, even lawn instead.  Check out the 40V Powerworks Self-Propelled mower Solo NZ have proudly brought in for the New Zealand market!

Need help equipping yourself with the right tools to take your lawn from poor to pro? Get in touch – we’ve got experts on hand to give you the right advice.